Find and Remove iPhone Apps You Don't Use to Save Storage - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Find and Remove iPhone Apps You Don't Use to Save Storage

by

There's an app for everything these days, and it's easy to reach a point where you have so many of them on your iPhone that a sizable proportion are simply forgotten about, and soon storage space starts to become an issue.

iPhone Free Up Storage Feature
Fortunately, there's an easy way that you can keep tabs on which apps you use the most and which ones have basically become redundant, and are just adding needless clutter to your Home Screen and eating up storage. Follow the steps below to learn how it's done.

How to Identify and Delete Apps You Don't Use

  1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Tap iPhone Storage.
    settings

  4. A list of all the apps (including stock apps) on your iOS device will load in order of size, with the largest apps listed first. Scroll down the list and look at the Last Used: date underneath the title of each app. (Alternatively, change the Size sort filter to Last Used.) If it's been several weeks or months since you opened an app, or it says Never Used, then consider uninstalling it – tap the app in the list.
    settings

  5. Two uninstall options are presented on this screen. Tap Offload App to unload the app but preserve any documents and data (these are reinstated if you later reinstall the app) or tap Delete App to remove the app and all related data from your device. If there are any files associated with the app, you can also tap Edit and delete them individually.

If you tend to download a lot of apps that often get left unused, consider enabling the iPhone Storage menu recommendation to automatically Offload Unused Apps when you're low on storage.

How to Reinstall Deleted Apps

If you uninstall an app but later decide that you want to use it (and it's still available in the App Store) simply follow the steps below to reinstate it.

  1. Swipe down on your ‌Home Screen‌ to invoke search.
  2. Type in the name of the app you're looking for.
  3. Tap the Redownload button (the cloud icon with the arrow pointing out of it) to download the app once again.
  4. search

Need to free up more storage? Check out our dedicated iPhone storage saving guide for more tips.

Popular Stories

iPhone Handoff Feature

iOS 27 Introduces New 'iPhone Handoff' Feature

Wednesday September 2, 2026 12:35 pm PDT by
Apple has added a new "iPhone Handoff" feature to iOS 27 that will allow you to switch between two iPhones while using the same phone number on each device. This functionality was briefly mentioned during the WWDC 2026 keynote in June, on a slide that listed hundreds of new features coming in iOS 27 and corresponding software updates, but Apple never shared any further details at the time. ...
Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium

New Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 Features Revealed

Sunday August 30, 2026 7:54 am PDT by
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today further outlined what to expect from the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 set to be unveiled on September 9. While it was initially rumored that Touch ID may be coming to the Apple Watch this year, Gurman reiterated that he does not expect the Series 12 or Ultra 4 to have any major design changes compared to the current Series 11 and Ultra 3 models. ...
John Ternus and Rainbow Countour Apple Logo

Apple Just Made a Very Controversial Decision on New CEO's First Day

Wednesday September 2, 2026 6:31 am PDT by
Apple's former hardware engineering chief John Ternus became its CEO on Tuesday, and the company made a controversial decision on his very first day in charge. As of Tuesday, Apple Maps users in the U.S. see the name "Lake America" instead of Lake Ontario for the Great Lake that straddles the New York—Ontario border. Apple made this change after the U.S. Geographic Names Information...